What A Life They Might Have Known
by MissFiyerabaMeponineSherlock
Summary: Alternate ending to my other story, One Towards the Other, with a happier ending.


**Hey guys, so I know that you were all sad when Marius and Eponine died in One Towards the Other, so after this idea popped into my head, I decided to go with it! So here it is, an alternate ending to OTtO in which Marius and Eponine did not die! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Les Misérables or the characters. The rights to the aforementioned belong to Victor Hugo, Cameron Mackintosh, Jean-Marc Natel, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, and, to a lesser degree, Tom Hooper. All characters in this story are fictional and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. **

_**Just to recap:**_

_**Marius, Eponine (who was pregnant), and Enjolras were planning on leaving Paris so that they could get away from Eponine's father and his gang. In One Towards the Other, Thenardier and the Patron Minette attacked them and killed Marius and fatally wounded Eponine. Enjolras killed three of the gang members and then helped Eponine give birth to a baby girl before Eponine died, leaving Enjolras to raise the baby whom he named Epona-Mari. This story is a bit different however and no one will die at this point. It will continue from when the trio was in the middle of leaving Paris.**_

Night soon fell upon France, the crescent moon smiling in the night sky.

"Ready to go?" Enjolras asked them as he stood up. They nodded. Marius stood and then helped Eponine to stand up. Eponine moaned slightly and placed a hand on her stomach. Marius and Enjolras looked at her worriedly.

"I'm fine." she said, but her voice was a bit strained. Marius wrapped an arm around her waist. "Let's go."

They slipped into the cool Parisian night and began to walk, they didn't have enough money for a coach. So they walked through the streets, completely unaware that they were being followed. Eponine moaned again and then froze. Marius and Enjolras stopped walking and turned to her, but she was not looking at them. She was staring at the ground in disbelief. She was staring at the small puddle of water at her feet.

"My water just broke..." she told them, disbelief in her voice.

"Wh-what... now? B-but it's too soon... you're only 7 months along..." Marius stammered.

"We'll get you to the hospital." Enjolras said. Then, just as they were turning in the direction of the hospital, a shot rang out, causing all three of them to jump. They looked around for the source of the noise. They noticed a group of men walking towards them. Eponine blanched as she recognised the leader of the gang as her father. Marius protectively stepped in front of her. Thenardier cocked his pistol and pointed it at him, pointing it directly at his heart.

"No!" Eponine quickly shoved Marius out of the way just as Thenardier pulled the trigger. The bullet went through Eponine's shoulder. She gasped in pain, both from the bullet that had just entered her body and from a contraction. Thenardier laughed and cocked his pistol again. Enjolras ran forward and tackled him, not caring in the least if he got shot. There was no way he was going to let his best friends–his only friends–die.

"Grab him!" Thenardier said to Brujon, Babet, and Claquesous. They did as they were told and grabbed Enjolras, who tried to fight them off. He was outnumbered. They dragged him away to 'take care' of him. That left Thenardier and Montparnasse alone with Marius and Eponine. Marius was torn. He wanted to run after them to help Enjolras, but he couldn't leave Eponine. Montparnasse took a step towards him.

"You're mine." he hissed. In his hand was a long, sharp, and altogether wicked-looking knife.

"St-Stay away from him!" Eponine cried out before gasping in pain. Thenardier aimed his pistol at her and shot her again, this time hitting her other shoulder. She cried out and then sank to her knees. Marius glanced at her, a horrified expression on his face. Montparnasse turned to smirk at Eponine. Marius took the chance to punch him as hard as he could. His fist collided with Montparnasse's temple. Montparnasse dropped to the ground, his head now bleeding internally. In the near distance, three shots were fired. "Enjolras..." Eponine whispered, tears falling from her eyes. Thenardier laughed and then pointed the pistol at Marius. "No!" Then a shot went off, but it did not come from Thenardier's pistol. In fact, it was Thenardier who cried out as a bullet entered his leg. Without thinking, he turned and ran/limped away as fast as he could. Eponine and Marius turned to see Enjolras standing there, a pistol in his hand. He was not dead. No, those gunshots had been the deaths of Brujon, Babet, and Claquesous. Enjolras had stolen Brujon's pistol and shot the three of them. He was rather beaten up, but he was alive. He ran over to them, just as Eponine cried out as she felt another contraction. Marius hurried to her side. "The baby... is coming... now!" she said. Her breathing was laboured and she seemed to be in a lot of pain. Blood came in torrents out of both of her wounds. The wounds themselves did not seem to be fatal, but she was losing a lot of blood.

"We have to get you to the hospital." Marius said as he started to lift her.

"No... time... baby... is coming... now!"

"Eponine, if we don't get you to a hospital, you could die of blood loss." Enjolras told her.

"We won't... get there... in... time..."

"We have to try." Marius whispered to her, a pleading edge in his voice. Eponine looked at him. She could see the desperation in his eyes. He didn't want her to die. She didn't want to die, not when she was literally about to have a baby.

"Then we'll... have to... hurry!" Marius lifted her and headed as quickly as he could in the direction of the hospital, Enjolras following him. About halfway there, Eponine demanded that they stop. "It's time..." she whispered weakly. "The baby..." Marius, trying not to panic, gently lay her on the ground. It was not an ideal place for her to give birth, obviously, but it would have to do.

In the early hours of the morning, a very tiny baby girl was born. Eponine smiled at the small baby girl, who had her chestnut brown hair and Marius' bright green eyes, before her world went black. She had lost a lot of blood. Marius quickly, but gently, passed the tiny baby to Enjolras, who stared at her in amazement. Marius gently shook Eponine, trying to get some kind of response from her.

"'Ponine?" he breathed. "'Ponine?" he gently pressed his head to her chest, trying to listen for a pulse.

There was none.

**Dun, dun, dun! But don't worry, she will live. I promise you that. I mean, that's kind of the whole point of this alternate ending.**

**I now have a blog for my account. In it, I will talk about future story ideas, current stories that I'm working on, and you'll probably get some sneak-peeks. If you wish to follow me on tumblr, my tumblr name thing is missfiyerabameponinesherlock . tumblr . com**

**Also, please check out the new poll on my profile page. It's regarding one of my future stories, Behold the Night That Falls, which centres around the attack on Rue Plumet.**


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